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“I don’t know what it means when you say that, but I’m not dreaming this time,” he mutters, and her eyebrows rise.
“Then how did you get here? Oh, gosh, did you all… are you all… dead?” she says the final word with a gasp, horror flickering in her eyes.
“No, no. We’re fine. I’m fine. We found the gate.”
She takes a step back, shaking her head fiercely. “Please tell me you didn’t use the gate for the Realm of Shadows, Brax. Please.” My spine stiffens, panic clawing at me as she franticallyswipes a hand down her face. “No, no, no, no, no,” she chants, tears forming, and my gut twists. “Get out. You have to get out right now,” she orders, shoving at his chest.
I feel his pain at the first push. The confusion and anguish seeps from him as his mother nudges him away.
“Mo—”
“No, Brax. Get out. Get outrightnow,” she yells, and a man comes rushing from the house.
“Father, will you tell her to stop?” Brax pleads, even as his mother continues to edge us back to the emerald gate that remains open behind us.
“You used the gate,” the man murmurs, the color draining from his face. “Not the gate, son.”
What the fuck have we done?
“Brax, we need to leave. Right now. Trust them. We need to go,” I breathe, looking up at him as he frowns. I can see the war in his eyes, the need to stay and understand, but there’s no time for that. “Come on,” I encourage, cutting the distance to the still-open doorway.
As I near the archway, I can see the cave system on the other side, and as dark and dingy as it is, his mother is making me feel a lot safer there than here. Even despite the feeling of home I got when I first stepped through.
Her panic is real. Her pain is undeniable.
With hopes of encouraging him back through easier, I step through the archway, feeling my world tip once more as I plant my feet on the ground of the cave. I turn back to the emerald door, expecting to see nothing like last time, but to my surprise, I can see clearly into the Realm of Shadows.
“Brax,” I call out, and he glances back at me.
Eldon, Creed, and Zane all step up to the space where I am, but none of them step through while Brax is lingering.
“Why? Please, just explain to me why?”
His mother sobs into her hand uncontrollably before shoving at his shoulders with more force than I expect, and he stumbles through the gateway, landing with a thud at my feet.
Fuck.
“Brax,” I start, but he quickly waves me off as he stands, turning to the doorway.
“This is why,” his mother cries, pointing at Eldon, Creed, and Zane, who are at her side.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Brax says, exasperated.
I wave for Eldon to hurry on through, but he shakes his head.
“They’ve never danced with the shadows before.”
“What the fuck does that mean,” Brax growls at the top of his lungs as I stare at my fireball, my onyx-eyed love, and my invisible joker.
I understand it before she says it, my heart splinters into a million pieces before she confirms it, and I know there’s no surviving this.
“They’re trapped.”
